Screen Capture File Format
TinkerTool used to let you change the file format used when you did a screen capture (shift-command-3 or shift-command-4). At some point I used this to change the format to pdf. Now the option in TinkerTool is greyed out. (I don't know when this happened; with the upgrade to Jaguar I guess.) However, whenever I do a screen capture, it still ends up as pdf. How do I switch it back to tiff? Is there some other way to switch file formats?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Comments
the explanation is on the tinker-tool website
it happened with the switch to 10.2 when apple got rid of the ability to screen cap in anything other then .pdf
<a href="http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15682" target="_blank">DropJPEG</a>
<strong>Or simply add the extention .tif to the file name and open with your favorite graphics program.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That is cool but I don't really understand. So can I just change the extension to any tif file to pdf and suddenly it is a pdf? Presumably it doesn't work the other way around unless the file was originally a tif?
<strong>So can I just change the extension to any tif file to pdf and suddenly it is a pdf? Presumably it doesn't work the other way around unless the file was originally a tif?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Nope. It doesn't work like that. That would be like if you take a $1 bill and write two zeros more on it, it doesn't change to $100...
[ 03-13-2003: Message edited by: Defiant ]</p>
This seems to imply that .tif files are a subtype of pdf files (sort of like .c files are a subtype of .txt files). Are there applications that will open pdfs but will not open a tif file whose extension has been switched to pdf?
<strong>What's the point of PDF outside making magazines etc.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's Cross-Platform and Secure.
<strong>The thing I hate about PDF is that everyone uses it for everything. It's huge and ugly and stupid for most things..like screenshots. U. RI makes us download the Dining Services hours of operation in PDF when it would save two minutes just posting it on the site..grr I have to download that PDF weekly. What's the point of PDF outside making magazines etc.</strong><hr></blockquote>
What, Defiant said. And you don't need to worry about formatting. And you don't need to worry about tampering (I guess that's what D meant by secure). And it's not tied to a properitary program. It's great.
<strong>Well now I am really confused. I did what physguy suggested and took one of the pdfs I created by doing a screen capture and just changed the extension to tif. With the extension pdf, Quicktime refuses to open it. With the extension tif Quicktime opens it fine. On the other hand, I don't seem to be able to find anything that can open pdfs but cannot open tifs (that have had there extension changed to pdf).
This seems to imply that .tif files are a subtype of pdf files (sort of like .c files are a subtype of .txt files). Are there applications that will open pdfs but will not open a tif file whose extension has been switched to pdf?</strong><hr></blockquote>
The screen save is in tiff format. Acrobat will open a tiff file therefore screen save puts it in pdf format. OTOH by changing the suffix to .tif it just allows graphics programs to try and open it, they then recognize that it is a tiff file and go forward.
<strong>What's the point of PDF outside making magazines etc.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Last thing you want to do is send your resume over via Word and have the chance of incompatibility but also them altering your resume!
Just one of the many resons why I love PDF.
<strong>The screen save is in tiff format.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't know what made you think so.
I just hit Shift-Cmd-3 and opened the file in TextEdit.
The first line happens to be "%PDF-1.3"
If that isn't PDF 1.3, I'm gonna eat my cellphone (which is old. Very old.)
Renaming it to "%filename%.tif" won't do anything but keep you from opening it in apps that look at the extension.
Open the file in Preview or GraphicConverter, convert it, and you're done.
Oh and just for the record for "PDF is a waste of space" people:
Picture 1.pdf 741.8 KB
Picture 1.jpeg 570.7 KB
Picture 1.tiff 1 MB
Picture 1.gif 180.2 KB (Note that GIF is limited to 256 colors and is really the ABSOLUTELY WRONG format for screenshots)
Picture 1.png 680.7 KB
Picture 1.bmp 0 bytes (Wonderful compression there, Microsoft. Actually, Path Finder's integrated conversion mechanism repeatedly failed with this one.)
Seeing as PDF transmits additional metadata (as it's meant for documents, see second initial), its compression isn't that bad, compared to JPEG and PNG, no?
And I've always found TIFF useless
JPEG 2000: 761 KB
PICT: 891.6 KB
Photoshop: 1.1 MB
QTIF: 3 MB
SGI: 1.1 MB
TGA / Targa: 1.4 MB
All with maximum quality.
Taken from http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/.
Snapz Pro X supports saving screen images as .bmp, .pict, .gif, .jpg, .png, .tiff, .pdf, or Photoshop files, and can even record the action as a QuickTime movie!
Having been a registered user for many years, I recommend it highly.